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A Power Stronger Than Itselfby George E. Lewis
University of Chicago Press 2008; US$ 18.00Founded in 1965 and still active today, the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians (AACM) is an American institution with an international reputation. George E. Lewis, who joined the collective as a teenager in 1971, establishes the full importance and vitality of the AACM with this communal history, written with a symphonic sweep that draws on a cross-generational chorus of voices and a rich collection of rare images. Moving from Chicago to New York to Paris, and from founding member Steve McCall’s kitchen table to Carnegie Hall, A Power Stronger Than Itself uncovers a vibrant, multicultural universe and brings to light a major piece of the history of avant-garde music and art. more...
Jazz Guitar Voicings - Vol. 1by SHER Music; Randy Vincent
Sher Music 2011; US$ 21.00Have you ever wondered how guitarists like Joe Pass, Jim Hall and Wes Montgomery find such full, luscious voicings for their chord melody playing? Well, much of that sound is based on the "Drop 2" principle of chord voicings. In this book, veteran guitarist Randy Vincent explains exactly how you can get that same sound too. Endorsed by Julian Lage, John Stowell, Larry Koonse, etc. more...
Three-Note Voicings and Beyondby Randy Vincent
Sher Music 2012; US$ 22.99Randy Vincent's second Sher Music Co. book covers every aspect of the crucial three-note voicings every guitarist needs to know. It has received glowing endorsements from Pat Metheny, Jim Hall, Mike Stern, Ben Monder, Vic Juris, Gene Bertoncinni, Julian Lage, etc. Three-Note Voicings and Beyond is for everyone from intermediate newcomers to jazz guitar to very advanced players. The book develops a unique dynamic concept of harmony where three independently moving lines team up to create beautiful harmonies that are valuable for comping, chord melodies and chordal jazz improvisations. Topics include: Three-note shell voicings and special derived comp voicings Compete triad review including all close and open inversions on all strings... more...
Just My Soul Respondingby Brian Ward
Routledge 1998; US$ 39.95A study of the links between Black consciousness and Black American popular music from the advent of R&B in the 1950s to the militant hip-hop groups of the 1990s. more...
Landing on the Wrong Noteby Ajay Heble
Routledge 2000; US$ 34.95A study of jazz from two perspectives: as a cultural and musical form. Discusses how literary and cultural theory can contribute to our understanding of jazz. more...
Miles and Meby Quincy Troupe
University of California Press 2000; US$ 12.95Quincy Troupe's candid account of his friendship with Miles Davis is a revealing portrait of a great musician and an intimate study of a unique relationship. It is also an engrossing chronicle of the author's own development, both artistic and personal. more...
Jazz Culturesby David Ake
University of California Press 2001; US$ 15.95From its beginning, jazz has presented a contradictory social world: jazz musicians have worked diligently to erase old boundaries, but they have just as resolutely constructed new ones. David Ake's vibrant and original book considers the diverse musics and related identities that jazz communities have shaped over the course of the twentieth century, exploring the many ways in which jazz musicians and audiences experience and understand themselves, their music, their communities, and the world at large. Writing as a professional pianist and composer, the author looks at evolving meanings, values, and ideals--as well as the sounds--that musicians, audiences, and critics carry to and from the various activities they call jazz. Among the compelling... more...
What Is This Thing Called Jazz?by Eric Porter
University of California Press 2002; US$ 15.95Despite the plethora of writing about jazz, little attention has been paid to what musicians themselves wrote and said about their practice. An implicit division of labor has emerged where, for the most part, black artists invent and play music while white writers provide the commentary. Eric Porter overturns this tendency in his creative intellectual history of African American musicians. He foregrounds the often-ignored ideas of these artists, analyzing them in the context of meanings circulating around jazz, as well as in relationship to broader currents in African American thought. Porter examines several crucial moments in the history of jazz: the formative years of the 1920s and 1930s; the emergence of bebop; the political and experimental... more...
Jazz in Its Timeby Martin Williams
Oxford University Press 1991; US$ 19.95From record album liner notes to serious academic pieces, Martin Williams has been perceptively chronicling the development of jazz for over three decades. In this, his newest collection of jazz writings, Williams brings together many of his best pieces and covers new ground, with short columns on Teddy Wilson and George Winston and a longer article, "How Long Has This Been Going On?," examining the current state of jazz. In this last work, Williams notes that jazz is experiencing a period of "stylistic retrenchment or, if you will, a period of conservatism," and questions the fusion of jazz with rock. Williams cites the opinion of Wynton Marsalis and a number of other musicians, who "seem to see the whole fusion thing as a kind of commercial... more...
Dancing in Your Headby Gene Santoro
Oxford University Press 1995; US$ 26.00As music columnist for The Nation, Gene Santoro has established himself as an important new critical voice, able to write well on a broad spectrum of popular music and jazz without losing touch with the cutting edge of today's music scene. About Nat "King" Cole, Santoro comments: "adjectives can't describe the swinging, ingratiating self-confidence laced with tenderness that colors Nat "King" Cole's singing. His baritone/tenor is so airy and elemental, so palpably physical, it invites you in, then surrounds you glowingly..." And on the highly successful rock band Living Colour, Santoro is no less evocative: "hardcore metal raveups slam into bluesy ballads and psychedelicized pop, lilting Caribbean inflections collide with hiphop scrambles of... more...









